Chapter 7 #2
So questioning the guardian it was. Only, I didn’t see any vaguely feminine creature made of swirling blackness and stars anywhere around.
We reached the main part of the estate, and still no sign of her. We all stood looking up at the grand house, curtains covering all the windows. It was just as still and abandoned as before.
Mistral handed me an insulated water bottle from one of our packs. I could hear ice clinking inside as I took it. We had come much more prepared than the first time, when we had been in a rush fleeing from my grandfather.
“You should rest,” Mistral suggested. “Gabriel will stay with you while Crispin and I look for the old pathway.”
My eyes slid beyond him to Sebastian, knowing it was no mistake he had been left out of the equation. I might have forgiven him, but I didn’t think he and Mistral would ever quite be pals.
When Sebastian ignored all of us and just looked up at the house, my eyes slid back to Mistral. “Are you sure it’s such a good idea for us to split up?”
He inclined his chin, acknowledging my worry, but countered, “We are likely safer here than anywhere else, and would you really like to continue walking?”
I gripped the insulated water bottle with both hands.
“Point taken.” I started to turn toward Gabriel, but only made it partway before he scooped me up and started carrying me toward the door.
“Hey!” I couldn’t help laughing. Sore feet were never much of an issue with Gabriel around.
Of course with my traveling, I also prevented my share of sore feet.
Ringo was a blue streak darting in front of us toward the door, reaching it first then having to wait for Gabriel to open it before we could all go inside. I wasn’t sure what Sebastian would choose to do, but after a moment he strolled through the door behind us.
Once again there were no shoes or coats, no signs of life at all.
A few strange but lovely glass sculptures that were actually meant to provide light sat forlornly around the room.
With the sun still high, we wouldn’t need them.
But if we ended up staying the night, well, hopefully we could find that candle.
Gabriel led the way past the kitchen into the sitting room, where I couldn’t help but take a peek out the window. I’d been standing in the same spot the first time I’d seen the guardian, right after it had stolen each of the guys.
“Is there food?”
I looked over at Ringo now perched on a sofa arm.
“We’ve barely been gone a couple hours,” Gabriel grumbled.
I knew we had packed enough rations for a few days, which hopefully wouldn’t be needed. In theory, we could just pop back home if we got hungry.
I turned toward Gabriel, pouting and rubbing my tummy.
His expression didn’t soften, but he huffed, “Fine,” then slung the pack down from his shoulder.
Sebastian wrinkled his nose at Gabriel. “It’s amazing that such pathetic tactics work on you.”
Ignoring him, Gabriel withdrew a square container from the pack, setting it on the low table. Next he withdrew a thermos.
I felt my eyes lighting up. “Tell me that’s what I think it is.”
Gabriel handed me the thermos so I could remove the lid—which doubled as a cup—and unscrewed the secondary lid underneath. The mouthwatering scent of coffee filled the small, cozy room. “You’re a saint.”
Gabriel zipped the pack then slung it back over his shoulder, kneeling to open the square container. “The rest of the rations won’t be nearly as nice, but Mistral thought you’d enjoy a proper lunch.”
The lifted lid revealed an array of sandwiches on perfectly baked rolls, their domes just the right amount of crusty, chewy, brown.
I reached for a sandwich as Ringo hopped over for a peek. “Remind me to thank him later.”
Sebastian had moved past us to peer out the window. He hadn’t even looked at the sandwiches. “You’re returning him to his home realm. A few sandwiches are poor payment.”
I took a bite of my sandwich—turkey, cream cheese, mayo, avocado, and sprouts—then spoke around the sinfully good bite, “What’s got your panties all in a twist?”
He continued looking out the window. “The guardian should have shown itself by now.”
Gabriel joined him at the window. “I agree. It might be waiting to get Eva alone.”
I tore off part of my sandwich and handed it to Ringo, who bounced up and down until it was clutched in his paws. “Don’t jinx it.” I reached for my first cup of coffee, then my vision blurred, making me queasy. Suddenly it felt like the whole room was shifting. “Oh no.”
“Oh not this again,” Sebastian spat, though I couldn’t see him now in the abrupt darkness after the shift.
Gone was the scent of old wood and open air of the sitting room, replaced by stone and a hint of mildew. I gripped my sandwich hard enough to drop a glob of cream cheese and sprouts onto the ground, then winced as stars burst to life before us, forming into the shape of the guardian.
“Could you not just speak to us up there?” Sebastian huffed.
“Shh,” I warned, approaching the guardian. The scrabble of claws followed by something climbing up my jeans let me know Ringo had been brought along too, and it was hard to miss Gabriel dutifully blocking me from the human form made of stars.
The shimmering creature seemed to hone in on me. “You have brought the blade, but you have also brought the void. I do not understand. Why have you come here?”
I cleared my throat, placing a hand on Gabriel’s arm as I stepped around him.
Out of all of us, I was probably the only one who didn’t need protecting from the guardian.
It was hard to tell exactly where to look since the face didn’t actually have features, but I leveled my gaze somewhere around where the eyes should have been.
“We’ve come to regrow the pathway, like I promised.
Can you tell us where the old one used to be? ”
The guardian’s stars flurried about erratically. “The void does not grow. The void takes.”
Did she mean the vortex? Come to think of it, I was feeling a bit of that strange buzzing I’d experienced when we faced my grandfather. “We’re not here to take anything,” I soothed.
I lifted one hand to placate her, but as I did, some of the stars pulled free from her form and floated toward my hand.
“Lies!” Magic buzzed through the room, the guardian’s stars flashing blindingly bright.
Gabriel pulled me back as I lifted both hands to ward her off, but the movement made more of her stars pull free to float toward me. “Stop! I’m not trying to hurt you!”
The buzzing intensified, the guardian coming apart at the seams. Where her stars touched my skin they burned like dry ice, but the ones near my hands seemed to sink through my skin.
Gabriel grunted, and I realized the stars buzzing around us were burning him too. Sebastian hissed as the stars sizzled through his clothing. With a growl, he gripped both my arms from behind, then pointed my hands at the main bulk of the stars.
They came toward me like I was a magnet, and with my hands held out, I absorbed them. More and more of them raced toward us, some burning, but most sinking into me.
It all ended as abruptly as it had started, leaving us in complete darkness as the final star hit my palm. My labored breath was loud in the sudden quiet. “What the hells just happened?”
Sebastian released his grip on my arms, allowing me to lower my hands. “The vortex just saved us, that’s what.”
I swallowed a lump in my throat, straining to see, though it was impossible in the small stone space. My skin still stung where the stars had touched me. “I’m pretty sure it also made her attack us.”
Sebastian gripped me again, just one arm this time. “Let’s get out of here.”
Gabriel said nothing, but I felt him grip my other arm.
“Ringo?” I said, my stomach dropping. He was a lot smaller than us. If too many of those stars hit him…
“He’s inside my jacket,” Gabriel said. “He’s fine.”
Relief washed through me, but only for a second as my mind flashed back over the guardian’s panic. I hadn’t meant to hurt her, but she had sensed the vortex. Maybe she understood that it had been linked to the gray that had invaded her waypoint.
Maybe the vortex sinking into me wasn’t such a harmless thing after all.